Jozef Schiplaecke

Jozef Schiplaecke (died 1747) was a Flemish bounty hunter during the mid-18th century. In 1747, he and two other mercenaries captured the highwayman Jan de Lichte and dragged him from their horses, only for them to be halted by a poor woman on a forested road. The woman demanded that the bounty hunters give her and her two fellow highwaymen (who were perched on trees with muskets) 500 florins and the pair of shoes which a German bounty hunter was wearing. The German declared that, if he wanted to be bossed around by a woman, he would get married, and he proceeded to shoot the woman dead. The highwaymen then fired on the bounty hunters, killing the German and mortally wounding Schiplaecke, while the third bounty hunter was killed by an escaped De Lichte. De Lichte stole Schipaecke's pocket watch before delivering the coup de grace by shooting him in the head.